How can we stop sorting the lables and retain the order in which we assign labels to an issue?

Question

I am assigning labels to my issues. However when the issue is created, the labels are automatically sorted alphabetically. I want to retain the order of the labels as the team is following a particular naming convention for the labels. How do I ensure that the order of the labels does not change?

John Funk · Accepted Answer

Hi Maithili - Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

You have very little control over how issues are sorted. You can either add an ORDER BY labels to your filter which will order  by labels alphabetically - either by A to Z or Z to A.

Or you can add ORDER BY Rank ASC (or DESC) which will order by the date created for your initial status. After that, it will order columns based on when the issue was first pulled into the board (more of less as it is very complicated how Jira does this and cannot be controlled).

Oliver Siebenmarck {Polymetis Apps} · Accepted Answer

Hi @Maithili Kulkarni ,

Just to add some more specific label-related info: You have no control over the order of labels. Seriously, none. They will always be sorted alphabetically.

While that is rather inconvenient in your case, it is logical when you think about the reasoning for labels: They are basically tags that either apply to an issue or not and allow for another way to sort issues. Labels themselves do not have any relationship to another and hence their order shouldn't matter.

Now, what are you options here? I'm afraid there isn't much. Multi-Select custom fields behave in a similar manner, ie do not keep the order in which options are selected. There are a few label management apps on the marketplace, but to the best of my knowledge not a single one of them would help in this case.

You could try to live with the alphabetical ordering of labels and adapt your naming convention to make that more bearable. If it helps, you could add Colorful Labels, an app that lets you color specific labels so that they stand out more.

Hope that helps,
 Oliver